The White Company

One of the UK’s most sought after wedding dress couturiers, Phillipa Lepley has a client list that is as high profile as it is secret.

“A few years ago, wedding dresses were more relaxed, but recently there’s been a return to drama. For my dresses, that means being more formal and often more covered up. There’s a high-neck trend, probably led by Pippa Middleton, while strapless is disappearing. Skirts are big and come out from the high-hip rather than the waist, trains tend to be around two-metres long, and everyone loves buttons down the back. People also want an alternative to lace, such as a tulle that is embroidered all over, and some people are requesting pockets, too. But generally it’s all about being feminine, traditional and dramatic.

“London brides can be very brave. There are things you wouldn’t wear in a small country church that you can get away with in London. You can go more structural, more powerful,

more catwalky. Some London brides choose something with really bold, hard lines, like a duchess-satin jacket. Others create drama through size – a high-collared, structured satin dress with a big skirt and very long train. International brides marrying here tend to be just as brave as Londoners. I’ve just made an amazing feather dress for a bride from China.

“So much more work goes into our dresses than people think. Our most elaborate designs are beaded all over and take five or six people at least six weeks to complete. We hand sew at least 50,000 beads. Our veils can be up to four metres by three metres, and it’s all one piece of silk tulle. You have to find a frame that size and if you make one hole in the veil, you’ve had it.

“Because everything is so thorough (each bride has seven or eight fittings) we never have any nightmare jobs. But we do have to work around difficult logistics, especially with our international clients. We had an Italian bride recently who was only here for a day and wanted to come back only once more.”

Ruth Lawton-Owen is managing director of The Admirable Crichton, luxury caterers and wedding designers with a royal warrant to The Prince of Wales.

“These days, everybody wants the Instagram moment – for people to walk in and be so impressed they can’t help but share a picture.

“Getting married in London certainly helps with that; the rule here is there are no rules. More and more people are choosing non-traditional venues, for example, like museums and galleries, and there’s absolutely no set structure to the day or the traditions people follow. Most people want something that’s never been seen before – we’ve even put a glass marquee on the back of Blenheim Palace.

“There are a couple of current design trends. Rustic, vintage style is being replaced by a more classic elegance – either a modern all-white palette with splashes of colour, or something in muted tones, soft greens, pinks or blues.

“Food-wise, there’s been a return to formal service after the recent trend for sharing platters. And thanks to television programmes such as Masterchef, people want the gels and emulsions you find in restaurants. We’ve recreated the signature dish of the world’s number one restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, for 160 guests, and flown a chef out to LA to learn how to cook chips exactly how a client liked them.

“And there’s much more concern about how food looks, too, especially with canapés. It’s all about creative presentation to give that wow moment. We’ve done everything from ski-slope canapé trays to chicken-liver parfaits dipped in apple gel to look like real apples.

“We find our London-based couples are very hands on. They have a clear vision and want us to enhance it, whereas our international clients will come to us for the vision. Londoners also tend to go for simpler elegance – everything is very precise but they like it to look like they haven’t tried too hard. International clients like more of a show.”

“When it comes to wedding music, you can have pretty much anything as long as you’re working with the right people, and couples are starting to take advantage of that. While international clients getting married in the UK often want something traditionally British, such as a brass band, London-based clients are choosing music that will make their wedding different from everyone else’s. Accordions, for example, are popular because they can play everything from Bach to tango. Or something unexpected for the reception, such as Cuban music, salsa or Klezmer bands who play lively Balkan music.

“We like to think we can meet almost any request. At one society wedding at which we were providing the music, the couple wanted a particular opera singer for their ceremony. Unfortunately for them she was performing at La Scala, the opera house in Milan, the night of their wedding. In the end, the singer rehearsed with our pianist over Skype from her dressing room, then we flew her to London between her performances.

“At another wedding, we provided a 12-piece swing band as a surprise present from the groom to the bride. We had to get them into the venue without her knowing, so we could then be revealed via a revolving stage as we started to play along with the DJ.

Lavender Green, of which Sue Barnes is managing director, was the florists for the weddings of Pippa Middleton and the Duke of Wessex.

“Things are changing in wedding floristry. Historically, couples would have picked a ‘look’ from their florist’s portfolio. We’ve never worked like that – we take a creative brief then design something totally bespoke – and more florists are starting to work in the same way. Couples are waking up to that. They want their wedding to be totally individual, to buck any trends and to create their own signature look or ‘brand’, and they can see that flowers are a great way to do that. That’s why so many couples are taking over big white spaces, such as photographic studios, so they can inject their own personality with flowers.

“That said, there are some trends. The hipster look, with lots of foliage, is being made cleaner and more contemporary, with foliage in beautiful containers on mirror top-tables rather than in garlands on wooden tables. People also want a pop of colour. For a long time, dusky pinks were everywhere but now people are asking for peach and coral, burnt oranges and even yellow. They might seem unusual colours, but that’s the whole point. Nobody wants to be part of a formula.

“Most people also want their flowers to be a statement of where they’re from. Londoners choose British flowers – you can’t beat a garden rose – but never any exotics, whereas international clients usually want orchids.

“We’ve done some fantastic projects. For the Wessex’s wedding, we made 25-foot-high designs. We had to be very sure they wouldn’t fall over – we could have wiped out the whole Royal family!

“And we did a three-day wedding last year where we created a lemon grove for the Friday, then flowers for a huge church, drinks marquee and a glass dinner marquee on the Saturday, as well as building a bridge over a ha-ha. The guests left at 3am and we took the carpets out of the glass marquee, turfed it and filled it with new flowers, all before noon. It took a team of 20.”